Hearts and flowers all around as we dig a little more into Hughes.
A quick podcast today explaining a few things about what I’m looking for from you.
A very short snip today about Hughes’ view of technology and its relationship with culture.
This morning’s talk is partly about Postman, partly about the weekly schedule, and partly about the way culture is defined by technology.
It’s short.
I recorded this yesterday afternoon and then didn’t hit the publish button.
There’s a pattern developing that I’m hoping to get reversed before we get too far down the road.
Not sure what Puxatawny Phil saw this morning, but it’s threatening to storm here.
I got out for a walk after my long illness and it felt good, altho I was a bit rubber-leggy by the time I got back.
Clarence Fischer is a teacher in a small multi-grade classroom in Canada. He’s also the mayor, which makes him a busy man. He’s one of the people I follow because he has both feet firmly on the ground and spends a lot of time thinking about what he does in the classroom.
Consumerism and Producerism is one of those posts that you really should read. You should subscribe to his blog if you’re interested in the intersection of education, technology, and culture…and not just this course.
Note: no podcast yet. I caught a bug at the convention last weekend. It’ll be at least another day before I’m ambulatory.
I’ve been traveling for the last few days and speaking at a science fiction convention in Colorado Springs. It’s a gorgeous place at the foot of Pike’s Peak, but it’s kept me almost completely offline except for my email link via smart-phone.
The result is that I’m a little late in responding to the “end of week catchup” flood of writings and comments.
Keep going. You’ve got some good momentum and a great discussion is developing — even if it’s a little early to see the full shape of it. I’ll be back home tonight and should have a podcast for you tomorrow morning.
You should watch this.
Some very brief notes on critical thinking.
Altho I didn’t actually post this until evening when you all were mostly asleep.
In this podcast I talked about two specific statements that Postman made and shared my view on them. Feel free to find other statements like this and use them for your writing prompt for the week.
Note: I’m getting a lot of questions via email that have answers in the podcasts. Verb. sap.
The one question that I’ve gotten more often than any other is some variation of:
“Do we post our assignments on the blogs?”
Yes. All writing EXCEPT the final paper and presentation should be on your blogs. You’ll get two grades per week. One on the weekly writing (which should happen early in the week) and one on the synthesis that should happen at the end of the week.
Here’s the catch. You should be reading what everybody else writes and commenting on that. You don’t have to comment on everything, but when somebody posts an idea that resonates with you, respond. This is supposed to be a conversation but if everybody talks and nobody listens, it’s just noise. It will be difficult for you to synthesise the week if you haven’t been participating and that will be reflected in the grade.
Most of you are teachers so you know that the only work that gets done is the work that gets graded. I know that, too, and your synthesis grade is the stick. Ignore it at your peril.
The carrot is that the point of this synthesis grade is to get you to focus on your own learning. Philosophically, I’m very much a social constructivist. You will build your own understanding of this complex domain together. Some of you will have a great deal of difficulty with this idea, but it’s really quite simple.
My job is to create an environment that fosters learning. I do that by organizing and sequencing a body of knowledge and presenting that in a way that encourages your participation. Your job is to participate and to learn something along the way. The only you have to do is convince me that you are, in fact, learning something. You do that through your writing. If you want to use another medium — say, a Tumblr blog with a voice line — that’s fine. Just let me know how you’re going to communicate with the class.
That’s it. Learn something and convince me that you’re learning. I’ve given some structured prompts for those who are at a loss in taking responsibility for your own learning, but those are not so much “assignments” as they are “suggestions.” Substitute a topic you’d prefer so long as it covers the same basic domain — the relationship of technology, education, and culture along with the readings currently assigned.
Don’t make it difficult.
And write if you have any questions.
